Monday, 31 March 2014

EVENT REPORT: European Divergent Movie Premiere

Ten days ago I got an email from a PR company inviting me to the Divergent movie premiere. Nine days later I found myself in busy Leicester Square in London as an enormous red carpet was unrolled outside the Odeon and groups of friends in faction colours took their Aptitude tests in the heart of the square.

We queued for what seemed like hours in the sweltering heat to swap our confirmation emails for tickets (in the form of wristbands) and were entertained by various Erudite who were trying to kill a Divergent girl they had found in the queue.

We bumped into Jax and Alison - both fellow bloggers - and it was lovely to see them after having only ever spoken online! Bloggers Rita, Nina, Jim, Sabrina, and Debbie were there, and so were authors Luisa Plaja and Natasha Ngan, but sadly I didn't get to see them.

There were lots of fun things to do in the Fan Experience. There was a tilting climbing wall, bungee jumping on trampolines, and a tent where you could re-create the Divergent movie poster in front of a green screen. Did I do this? Yes. Do you get to see my version of the movie poster? No. It's too embarrassing, I wouldn't want to hurt your eyes.

Soon it was 2pm and we were ready to walk the red carpet. Veronica Roth arrived first, quickly followed by stars of the film Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet and Ben Lloyd-Hughes.

When we got into the cinema we found free t-shirts and bottles of flavoured water waiting for us, and we also received wristbands. Everyone loves free stuff!

I'll admit that before seeing Divergent I didn't have high hopes for it due to the negative reviews I've been seeing. However, it was AMAZING. Divergent is so much better than I thought it would be. I was unsure of whether Theo James would fit the part of Four, but he was really good. Shailene Woodley was perfect for the role of Tris, and Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn were equally brilliant. The fighting scenes were the best - I'm not sure if it was the unique camera angles or the fact that I was seeing the film on a massive screen, but these scenes especially were fantastic. There are two parts in particular that stood out for me: when Four is throwing knives at Tris, and when Tris is on the zip wire. SO SO SO well done. The director of the film Neil Burger who was also at the premiere did an excellent job and the cinematography was absolutely perfect, and I didn't notice any extreme changes from the book. I'm sure everyone reading this will see the film at some point but I highly recommend you buy tickets now.

After Divergent finished, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favourite YouTubers, Jim Chapman, who had also been watching the film. I managed to get his autograph among the mob of fangirls which quickly circled him. See, there is an advantage to being 5'1 - I can slip through gaps and get autographs. He kindly took selfies and gave autographs for a while, as did his fiance Tanya Burr, a beauty YouTuber. I also got my photo taken in front of the Divergent backdrop (you can see the photo in my video) and, funny story: the side of the backdrop fell down as I was having my photo taken. It fell onto another girl. It was nothing to do with me, I swear!

And then we went to M+M's World, Trafalgar Square, not-so-Big Ben and the London Eye. Because why not.

If you want to see the same event from a different perspective, feel free to read this post on my mother's blog. I don't have any photos of me walking the red carpet because I was filming instead. If you want to see that and other exciting things such as screaming crowds, Jim Chapman's face, and me glaring at security, you can watch my vlog of the day here! Oh, and it might also feature Shailene, Theo, Kate, Ben, and the author herself Veronica Roth...I guess you'll just have to watch it to see for yourself. ;)

BIG thank you to the PR company for inviting me and supplying the tickets for my previous giveaway. I had an amazing time!

18 year old book blogger who aspires to work in journalism and/or publishing, and dreams of one day seeing her own work on bookshelves around the world. Amber has been running The Mile Long Bookshelf single-handedly since 2009.

You're so lucky, I don't think we're having such a grand event like this in Australia. Sunny's going to our premiere so I'm excited to see what she thinks. You got some really good shots of the actors!

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